Joseph Lin, violin/viola
Stephanie Zyzak, violin
Claire Bourg, violin
Raman Ramakrishnan, cello
Helen Huang, piano

Sought after as a performer and teacher, Joseph Lin appears regularly throughout the U.S., Asia, and Europe. He teaches violin and chamber music and was first violinist of the Juilliard String Quartet from 2011 to 2018 before stepping down to devote time to his four young children. Lin’s recent projects include a collaboration with Robert Levin featuring Beethoven and Schubert on period instruments, performances of Bartók’s Second Violin Concerto, Beethoven’s late string quartets, and the complete Beethoven violin sonatas with Helen Huang at Juilliard. Marking the 300th year of Bach’s Violin Sonatas and Partitas in 2020, Lin presented complete cycles in Boston and Philadelphia. In recent seasons, Lin has given baroque and classical period instrument performances on both viola and violin. In 2025, Joseph Lin presents a special Beethoven program (Op. 95 “Serioso” Quartet, Op. 96 Sonata, and Op. 97 “Archduke” Trio) in numerous cities around the U.S.

From 2007 to 2011, Lin taught at Cornell University, where his projects included the inaugural Chinese Musicians Residency as well as a collaboration with Cornell composers to create new works inspired by Bach.

Lin was a founding member of the Formosa Quartet, which won the 2006 London String Quartet Competition. In 1996, he won first prize at the Concert Artists Guild International Competition and was named a Presidential Scholar in the Arts. In 1999, he was selected for the Pro Musicis Award and, in 2001, he won first prize at the inaugural Michael Hill Violin Competition in New Zealand. His recordings include the music of Korngold and Busoni with pianist Benjamin Loeb; an album of Debussy, Franck, and Milhaud with pianist Orion Weiss; and the complete unaccompanied works of Bach and Ysaÿe. His recording of Mozart’s A Major Violin Concerto with original cadenzas was released in 2017. With the Juilliard Quartet, he recorded Schubert’s Death and the Maiden and Elliot Carter’s Fifth Quartet as well as the quartet’s recent album of Beethoven, Davidovsky, and Bartók. During the summer, he is a regular artist at the Tanglewood, Ravinia, and Marlboro festivals.

Lin, whose violin teachers have included Mary Canberg (Diploma ’45), Shirley Givens (Diploma ’53), and Lynn Chang (Pre-College ’69), graduated magna cum laude from Harvard in 2000, and in 2002 began an extended exploration of China, studying the guqin as a Fulbright scholar.

Praised for her sensitive musicianship and heartfelt playing, violinist Stephanie Zyzak is quickly gaining a reputation as one of the most soulful and profound musicians of her generation.

At the age of seven, Stephanie made her first solo appearance with the Starling Chamber Orchestra at the Aspen Music School and became the youngest recipient ever to be awarded the Aspen Music School New Horizon Fellowship. The following year, she performed in Germany as an invited guest of the Internationale Kunst – Akademie Liechtenstein (IKAL). Since making her debut in 2004 with the Louisville Orchestra, Stephanie has performed as soloist throughout Germany, Russia, Austria, Sweden, Spain, Italy, France, and with orchestras including the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Dayton Philharmonic, Southeast Missouri Symphony, and the UC Davis Symphony Orchestra. Recent and upcoming season highlights include performances at Caramoor, Carnegie Hall, the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert series, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Vancouver Chamber Music Society, and on tour with Mitsuko Uchida and Musicians from Marlboro as part of Carnegie Hall’s Perspective Series.

A deeply passionate chamber musician, Stephanie frequently collaborates and appears in concerts with musicians including Mitsuko Uchida, Jonathan Biss, Kim Kashkashian, Hsin-Yun Huang, Alice Neary, Danny Phillips, Marcy Rosen, and Peter Wiley. She has also performed at Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute, Caramoor, the Four Seasons Chamber Music Festival, and the Marlboro Music Festival, where she has toured extensively with Musicians From Marlboro.

Born in South Carolina, Stephanie is a graduate of New England Conservatory and has studied with Miriam Fried and Mark Steinberg. She is also a founding member of ensemble132, a roster-based chamber music collective and was a 2020-22 Ensemble Connect fellow at Carnegie Hall.

Stephanie performs on a 1778 Joseph and Antonio Gagliano violin, generously on loan from Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute, and a bow by François-Nicolas Voirin.

Renowned violinist Claire Bourg has captivated audiences across the United States and Europe with her performances as both a soloist and chamber musician. She has appeared in many prestigious venues including Carnegie Hall, Chicago’s Orchestra Hall, the Kimmel Center, Bremen’s Kleiner Saal, Pritzker Pavilion, Jordan Hall, and the Fryderyk Chopin University Hall in Warsaw. In 2021, she performed Mozart’s First Violin Concerto as a soloist with the Camerata Bern in Hannover.

Claire is a distinguished laureate of several competitions, receiving the prestigious 2021 Luminarts Fellowship, second prize at the 2020 Barbash J.S. Bach Competition, and winning the New England Conservatory Competition. She has been recognized at numerous international competitions such as the Joachim International Competition, Kreisler International Competition, Singapore International Competition, and was selected among 24 violinists for the Concours musical International de Montréal. In 2024, she performed at Brussels’ Studio 4 in Flagey as part of the esteemed Queen Elisabeth Competition.

A sought-after chamber musician, Claire has collaborated with preeminent artists such as Mitsuko Uchida, Kim Kashkashian, Jörg Widmann, Ida Kavafian, and Frans Helmerson. She is a regular performer with Musicians from Marlboro, Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Music for Food, Chameleon Arts Ensemble, and Curtis on Tour, and previously served as concertmaster of Symphony in C in Philadelphia.

Claire was a resident artist at the Marlboro Music Festival for three years and participated in the Evnin Rising Stars program at Caramoor during the 2021 and 2022 seasons. She has also appeared at Festival Mozaic, Yellow Barn, Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute, Taos Chamber Music Festival, IMS—Prussia Cove, and Gstaadt Menuhin Festival Academy. Claire is dedicated to exploring contemporary works, having collaborated closely with composers Augusta Read Thomas, Jörg Widmann, David Ludwig, Steven Mackey, and Bright Sheng.

Ms. Bourg holds degrees from New England Conservatory, the Curtis Institute of Music, and the Juilliard School, where she received a Kovner Fellowship. Her primary mentors have included Miriam Fried, Pamela Frank, Arnold Steinhardt, and Joseph Lin. Currently, Claire resides in New York City where she is pursuing her Doctorate at the City University of New York’s Graduate Center under the guidance of Mark Steinberg.

Claire performs on a violin by Zosimo Bergonzi of Cremona, circa 1770, generously on loan through Guarneri Hall NFP and Darnton & Hersh Fine Violins, Chicago.

Cellist Raman Ramakrishnan enjoys performing chamber music, old and new, around the world. For two decades, as a founding member of the Horszowski Trio and the Daedalus Quartet, he toured extensively through the Americas, Europe, and Asia, and recorded for Bridge Records and Avie Records, including, most recently, the complete piano trios of Robert Schumann. Mr. Ramakrishnan is currently a member of the Boston Chamber Music Society, and is on the faculty of the Bard College Conservatory of Music.

Mr. Ramakrishnan has given solo recitals in New York, Boston, Seattle, and Washington, D.C., and has performed at Caramoor, at Bargemusic, with the Chicago Chamber Musicians, and at the Aspen, Bard, Charlottesville, Four Seasons, Kingston, Lincolnshire (UK), Marlboro, Mehli Mehta (India), Oklahoma Mozart, Portland, Skaneateles, and Vail Music Festivals.  He has toured with Musicians from Marlboro and has performed, as guest principal cellist, with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. As a guest member of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble, he has performed in India and Egypt.  He has served on the faculties of the Kneisel Hall and Norfolk Chamber Music Festivals, as well as the Music Performance Program of Columbia University.

Mr. Ramakrishnan was born in Athens, Ohio and grew up in East Patchogue, New York. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in physics from Harvard University and a Master’s degree in music from The Juilliard School. His principal teachers have been Fred Sherry, Andrés Díaz, and André Emelianoff. He plays a Neapolitan cello made by Vincenzo Jorio in 1837.

Taiwanese-American pianist Helen Huang was discovered by conductor Kurt Masur upon winning the Young People’s Competition, which resulted in engagements with the New York Philharmonic and a recording contract with the Teldec record label. Known for immaculate technique and her eloquent sensitivity, Huang has enjoyed a multi-faceted career as a soloist and chamber music player and has played with orchestras such as the Cleveland Orchestra, the National Symphony, and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Abroad she has appeared with the Berlin Philharmonic, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Orchestre National de France, the London Philharmonic, and the Israel Philharmonic, among others. An avid chamber musician, Huang has appeared at the Marlboro Music Festival, La Jolla SummerFest, and at Ravinia’s Steans Institute For Young Artists.

Huang’s recordings on the Teldec label include Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1, Mozart’s Piano Concertos K. 488 and K.467, Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No. 1, and Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the New York Philharmonic under Kurt Masur. She also recorded an album titled For Children, which consists of works inspired by the theme of children. She collaborated with violinist Cho-Liang Lin on an album of music by Georg Tintner released on the Naxos label as well as a recording of music by Zhou Long with Cho-Liang Lin and Hai-Ye Ni, released on the Delos label.

Born in Japan of Taiwanese parents, she moved to the U.S. with her family in 1985 and began piano lessons two years later. Within a year, she had won her first competition and several other victories soon followed. In 1994, she received Lincoln Center’s Martin E. Segal Award for promising young artists and in 1995 became one of the youngest recipients of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant.

Huang received the Arthur Rubinstein Prize upon graduating from Juilliard in 2004, where she was a student of Yoheved Kaplinsky. She went on to pursue her master’s degree from Yale, under the tutelage of Peter Frankl. Huang has been on the Juilliard Pre-College faculty since 2010, working as an assistant to Kaplinsky. She resides in New Jersey with her husband and two daughters.